I saw the tears in your smile,
the nervous tension you attempted
to mask with rapidly overlapping
words, the edge in your voice,

a resounding crash of reality trying
to bring us back from neverland...

but my ears sought your voice,
strained against the winds of time,
as each second felt like an hour,
which we hadn't lived a minute of...

and each of your various efforts
to push me away, lay scattered...

I heard the silence in your breaths,
made meaningful by the sweet
nothings you whispered next,
sliding ever so gently across my skin,

like someone poured whiskey
on a cold afternoon.

What is love without trust,
I wondered throughout the day, as I heard
the sound of my heart quietening;

the frost which had begun
to melt, made its way back
through broken heart beats.

What is love without trust,
I asked you, but silence rushed by,
amidst heavy breaths, and


we pretended, yet again,
on the edges of normalcy.